Emily Gales speaks to Hypable about Steal My Sunshine, her most recent book, which deals with a controversial and often forgotten part of Australia’s history.
Steal My Sunshine is the story of a family that is falling apart. From the perspective of teenager Hannah, we see a family in ruin, while their secrets begin to come to light. Hannah has always had a soft spot for her grandmother Essie, but what Essie has to say could decimate a family that is hanging on by a single thread. Watch the Steal My Sunshine book trailer below.
Emily Gale deals with the controversial topic of the forced adoptions that took place in Australia from the 1950s to 1970s. Gale’s book is timely, as only several months ago Australia’s then Prime Minister gave a formal apology to the families who has suffered from this policy.
Exclusive interview: Emily Gale
Tell us 5 interesting facts about yourself
1. I’m 38 and I can’t drive. That’s more pathetic than interesting, sorry.
2. I gave birth to my second child on the living room floor. Which was not the plan.
3. I used to write a magazine column about being a single 20-something, but it was completely fictional. At the time I was 30-something and had one child and one on the way – it was nice to relive my youth.
4. I’ve got a new series of books aimed at 5-8 year olds coming out early next year. The main character is called Eliza Boom and she’s an inventor/spy with a great sense of humour and a loveable dog.
5. If you and I ever competed on Wii Just Dance to Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’, I would probably win.
Tell us about your process to become a writer
Here’s the speedy, flow-chart version:
Wanted to be writer since approximately birth -> Lived in London and couldn’t even afford sofa so got proper job (still couldn’t afford sofa) -> Worked as children’s book editor -> Went freelance and got commissioned to write pre-school books (also got sofa, woo!) -> Wrote children’s book and got agent curiously fast -> But no book deal -> Wrote YA book and got new agent -> And book deal! -> Moved to Australia (sold sofa) -> Wrote book set in Melbourne -> Nothing much happening so got proper job -> As soon proper job started, got another book deal (double woo!).
And now I am a writer and a Children’s Book Buyer, with a good-sized sofa. So all is well.
What was your inspiration for ‘Steal My Sunshine’?
I think the ideas were brewing for some time and come from different sources. Probably my primary school education in a Catholic convent, and the difficult process of deciding that I was Atheist, contributed to my interest in religious institutions and their dichotomous functions in society: the charity on one hand and the often misguided and terribly damaging penal role on the other.
I’ve always had my eye on these kinds of stories: in films, TV dramas, books, etc. That’s where Essie’s sad history comes from. But I really wanted it to be a contemporary story because the things that happened to girls like Essie had such profound repercussions. I wanted to make it relevant for a new teen generation.
When did you begin writing it?
The very first scene was written in late 2005. It was a piece of flash fiction that I wrote during a 24-hour writing marathon, to raise money for Children In Need. Selected stories from the marathon were published in a little book and that piece was one of them. It was called ‘I Heart Pottery.’
Although it’s only a few hundred words, it’s where my main character’s big brother, Sam, and their mum, came from. The rest of the family and their situation grew out from that scene, which is still in the book although it’s quite different from the original because it’s now seen from Hannah, my 15 year old main character’s point of view.
I like thinking about how such a tiny, unintentional bit of writing was the seed for something much bigger.
‘Steal My Sunshine’ tackles a very difficult topic – did you approach it in a particular way because of this?
I did a lot of research. I went down all sorts of paths and questioned myself over everything, again and again, because these are not my experiences but they are very real experiences for a great many people, not just in Australia but all over the world. The book was a risk in several ways and as a result I’ve never been more nervous but hopefully I’ve approached it with integrity.
Were you worried about audience response?
I think it’s impossible not to – certainly at this stage of my writing career when I’m up one minute and down the next and don’t know where the next book deal might come from. Writers have strange egos – in one way we’re self-obsessed and arrogant but we’re also extremely vulnerable and a bit pathetic. I need validation as much as anyone who puts themselves on the line.
Like most writers, a bad review stings like anything and I carry that disappointment around with me, although gradually it fades into the background. So, yes, there is always a great deal of worry.
‘Steal My Sunshine’ was a very complete story, however you still left a lot of room for growth for the different characters. Would you consider revisiting this world in a sequel?
I didn’t write it with a sequel in mind but having lived with Hannah, Sam and the other characters since 2005 I’m glad to say I would happily write about them again – I’m not sick of them yet.
With my first novel, Girl Aloud, it was a couple of years before I contemplated resurrecting the characters, but then I wrote a sequel (not yet published), and I think I enjoyed it even more than the first book. I felt that I knew the characters so well by then and could take them to new places and explore them even more as they matured. So, you never know.
What do you find easiest to write, the first or the last line of a book?
I love beginnings. Steal My Sunshine had the same first line for every draft until the very last draft – so from 2005 to 2012 it didn’t change and then right at the last minute I completely rewrote the beginning.
I couldn’t have contemplated doing that until then because I felt like the beginning was the only perfect part. But once I’d redrafted the rest umpteen times, the beginning eventually looked tired.
I find endings much more difficult, and I think this might be true for lots of writers – you’re much more likely to get complaints from readers about disappointing endings than disappointing beginnings. Once you get to that endpoint the reader has this whole journey behind them and it’s really difficult to find those last few sentences that will give the reader a sense of completion and satisfaction.
Can you give us a recommendation of another YA book you have read recently?
My favourite new release is Wildlife by Fiona Wood. I loved her first novel, Six Impossible Things, so much that I came into Wildlife worrying that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. It exceeded them. Style-wise, I’m in awe of Fiona and also Simmone Howell whose new YA novel Girl Defective came out earlier this year.
Other YA books that have really blown my mind in the last few months are: Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught (told from the point of view of a schizophrenic teenage boy who fears he may have had something to do with the disappearance of his best friend), Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (currently winning all the Fantasy Lit prizes and rightly so), and The Reluctant Hallelujah by Gabrielle Williams, which is a brave and funny book with a great teen voice.
More about ‘Seal My Sunshine’:
During a Melbourne heatwave, Hannah’s family life begins to distort beyond her deepest fears. It’s going to take more than a cool change to fix it, but how can a girl who lives in the shadows take on the task alone? Feeling powerless and invisible, Hannah seeks refuge in the two anarchists of her life: her wild best friend, Chloe, and her eccentric grandmother, Essie, who look like they know how life really works. But Hannah’s loyalty to both is tested, first by her attraction to Chloe’s older brother, and then by Essie’s devastating secret that sheds new light on how the family has lost its way. Even if Hannah doesn’t know what to believe in, she’d better start believing in herself.
Combined with Hannah’s contemporary story, at the heart of Steal My Sunshine is the revelation of a shameful aspect of Australia’s history and how it affected thousands of girls and women – the forced adoptions that saw ‘wayward girls’ and single mothers forced to give up their babies by churches and hospitals. The practice endured for decades, and only now are the numbers and the heart-wrenching stories coming to light.
More about Emily Gale:
You can find Emily on Twitter at @EmilyGale and on Facebook. For more about Emily and her work, visit her website.
Steal My Sunshine was published by Random House on 1 May 2013. You can purchase it through Random House, Amazon (Kindle version), and other assorted retailers.
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